Perry, who is mulling another run for president, is accompanied by his detail when he makes trips for political events, state business or vacations.

Taxpayers typically don’t foot the bill for Perry’s direct travel costs, but they do pay for the Texas Department of Public Safety security detail.

Perry has rebuffed the idea of covering the security detail’s costs for political trips, as some have urged, saying he is governor wherever he goes. Of the total $2.8 million in travel costs, $1.8 million occurred in August 2011 through January 2012, when Perry was running for the GOP nomination for president.

DPS releases a quarterly tally of expenses such as food, fuel, lodging and direct travel for the security detail. The latest quarterly report includes expenses through November, plus costs for earlier trips for which bills lagged. Its full quarterly tally for Perry’s security team was $124,714.24, including expenses for trips within Texas as well as out of state.

Aside from the costs in this quarterly report, the DPS security detail incurs overtime costs.

The total overtime paid for executive protection for 2013, through Dec. 18, was nearly $1.7 million, according to figures released by DPS in response to my public information request.

Unlike the other costs, DPS figures don’t specify how much of the overtime cost is attributed to Perry’s security needs.

Executive protection also covers Attorney General Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, but travel costs for their security details are much smaller, so it would appear the bulk of the cost for overtime also would be due to Perry’s trips.